Stand Up To Racism staged a banner drop as part of a day of action on Tuesday (Picture: Guy Smallman)
Fascists are unlike any other political grouping. Their aim is to build a street army of thugs to terrorise minorities and their political opponents—and, ultimately, smash working class organisation and all democratic rights.
That is why we need mass numbers to confront them when they march on the streets. Outnumbering them, denying them space and demoralising them is the key to beating the likes of Tommy Robinson and his supporters.
Mass confrontation can isolate the fascists’ hardcore from their wider support, fragmenting their movement and stopping it from growing. If we don’t face up to them, fascists will gain in confidence, deepen their roots and pull more people into their network.
The history of anti-fascism in Britain shows standing up to them can work. Anti-fascists beat back the fascist English Defence League, founded by Tommy Robinson, in the 2010s.
Thousands of people marched and staged a sit-in to stop them marching through Walthamstow, east London, in 2010, for example. The fascists left the area, shattered and demoralised.
The Anti Nazi League (ANL) did the same to the fascist National Front (NF) in the 1970s and the British National Party in the 1990s.
The Battle of Lewisham in 1977 saw thousands of people, black and white, block a Nazi march in south London. That victory over the NF was a catalyst to launching the ANL, which beat back the fascists nationally.
The Battle of Welling in 1993 saw anti-fascists from across Britain mobilise against the BNP’s headquarters.
That tradition of mass and militant confrontation goes back to the 1930s.
It was how the first major fascist organisation in Britain—the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in the 1930s—was beaten.
The Battle of Cable Street of 1936 was a defining moment. Thousands of working class people went up against the full force of the police to stop the BUF marching through the largely Jewish east end of London.
The battle proved to be a turning point, as sustained mass anti‑fascist resistance led to the party’s disintegration.
On each of these occasions, mass mobilisation meant anti‑racists had the strength and numbers to take on the far right and fight off the police.
The forces of the revolutionary left cannot build these mass mobilisations alone. There must be a sustained attempt to win alliances with the wider left, sections of the trade union movement and supporters of the Labour Party. Only this can win us the numbers needed to stop a serious Nazi threat.
When Nazi Tommy Robinson tries to mobilise his supporters in central London this Saturday, we must fight tooth and nail to stop him. And we have to continue to build opposition on the streets wherever the fascists try to grow next.
Indigenous people and their supporters were right to protest against King Charles’s visit to Australia this week. And Senator Lidia Thorpe was right to say that his ancestors were responsible for mass murder and mass genocide.
Australia was founded as a settler colonial state, based on the attempted eradication of the Indigenous population.
When Captain Cook arrived in 1770, he took possession of the eastern coast of what is now called Australia “in the name of His Majesty King George III”.
Over the next century and a half, the British Empire murdered at least 40,000 people.
In the 20th century, thousands of Indigenous children were systematically stolen from their homes and sent to institutions or adopted by white families.
Indigenous people still have a shorter life expectancy than the white population, poorer health outcomes and are more likely to be in prison.
The monarchy upholds the ideology of a British Empire based on slavery, genocide and racism. It should have been abolished decades ago.
Dominion Society is building links with Restore Britain
Demos will be held across Britain
